The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos, accompanied by the HNDGS Chief Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, the HAF Chief Lt General (AF) Christos Christodoulou and the Special Secretary of the MoD Kalliope Papaleonida, visited Andravida where he observed the Multinational Aair Force Medium Range Joint Exercise “Iniochos 2017”.
The exercise was also attended by the Ambassador of the USA to Athens Geoffrey R. Pyatt.
The Minister of National Defence stated the following:
“You observed exercise “Iniochos 2017” with the participation of the United States of America, Israel, The United Arab Emirates , Italy and of course our Air Force. This exercise was joined this year by the Army and the Navy and it was embellished with joint exercises. It is an exercise of extreme military interest because it is a joint action of countries not participating in a common Alliance as is NATO and the EU, but countries which play an important role in the Mediterranean. At the same time we are conveying a geopolitical message of utter importance. With Greece being the epicenter, a great alliance is established as an axis of stability, stretching in the south from Greece to Cyprus -which participated this year via the Commander of the Air Command of the Cypriot National Guard- Israel, the Middle East countries and Italy in the west.
We are talking about a very sensitive region of the South-East Mediterranean. A region with serious developments in Syria and Libya, with geostrategic rearrangements, where a simultaneous common effort is underway to combat terrorism which is rapidly spreading. The funding of terrorism is based on the illegal trafficking of oil, weapons, drugs and humans.
I believe that this exercise gives the opportunity to Air Forces of different concepts to come closer and train together. I am proud of the Hellenic Armed Forces and our Air Force. As you witnessed today we awarded two officers , who excelled . They were not evaluated by the leaderships but their colleagues as the best fighters at a personal level and at formations level. Greece will continue this effort and these initiatives with a proud foreign policy, which stretches to the south to the countries of the Middle East , Northern Africa and to the north to the Balkan countries’.
